Dustin Hoffman takes first crack behind the camera with Quartet'

Dustin Hoffman is the first to admit he can be tough on directors. While he’s enjoyed great collaborations with helmers like Mike Nichols (“The Graduate”) and John Schlesinger (“Midnight Cowboy,”“The Marathon Man”), he’s rubbed others the wrong way with a desire to continually pick scenes apart.

But when Hoffman finally made the move to the other side of the camera on “Quartet,” his perfectionist streak came in handy.

Actress Pauline Collins, who co-stars in “Quartet,” says Hoffman was both a “dynamo and a darling” on the set.

“Dustin is one of the most inspiring and kindest directors that I have ever worked for because he understands how actors work,” she says.

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“Occasionally I would say to Dustin, ‘You don’t really understand what we are talking about’ and he would say, ‘Tell me. Tell me exactly what I am doing wrong’. So I loved the lack of hubris in the man.”

Whenever Hoffman had a tough decision to make on the set of “Quartet,” he says he simply put himself in the shoes of prospective audience members.

As he was prepping the movie about four aging opera singers living out their days in a retirement community, he knew the key to the film’s success was to keep it from getting too depressing and downbeat.

“When you’re doing something like this, you try to be your audience at the same time,” says Hoffman, 75, a two-time Oscar winner and a seven-time nominee. “This is not a movie about smelling the urine. That is another movie.

“I knew we had an obligation to keep an energy in it, and keep the audience interested. In fact I asked some of the actors to take a look at ‘His Girl Friday’ by Howard Hawks because everybody talks over each other and there’s this great energy.

“I’m a big fan of Billy Wilder and he said, ‘if you are going to try and tell the truth to the audience, you had better be funny or they will kill you’ and I have never forgotten that.”

Indeed, “Quartet” might acknowledge the hardships of aging but it puts an emphasis on characters who feel as if they still have a lot of life left to live.

Set at a retirement home for musicians called Beecham House, the action centers on a trio of former opera singers (Collins, Billy Connolly, Tom Courtenay) who are surprised to discover that their new tenant is their former singing partner, a star soloist named Jean (Maggie Smith) who was once married to Courtenay.

As a gala benefit concert looms, the four pals must heal over old wounds, calm Jean’s raging temper and learn to sing a quartet from “Rigoletto”— though not necessarily in that order.

“Quartet” might not break any new ground but it keeps sentiment in check and gives Smith more stinging one-liners than she has all season on “Downton Abbey.”

In limited release, the movie has scored impressive reviews. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone described “Quartet” as “defiantly funny and touching,” adding that Hoffman showcases flesh-and-blood characters” who are “flushed with humor and tenderness.”

Being an actor for more than four decades made Hoffman realize the kind of director he did — and didn’t — want to be.

“After 45 odd years of working in the business, you pile up all the good things that you like about directors and things that you don’t like — and sometimes they are very similar,” says Hoffman.

“Directors kind of break down into two categories — people who like being surprised and people who abhor being surprised.”

Throughout a career that’s included roles in such iconic movies as “The Graduate,”“Midnight Cowboy,”“All the President’s Men,”“Tootsie” and “Rain Man,” Hoffman has learned how to protect himself as an actor. Maintaining his integrity, he says, taught him everything he needed to know about directing a movie.

“We all direct when we are acting in movies, every single one of us,” he says. “You have to protect yourself…because it is a bastard art form. And, as actors, we’re not allowed in the cutting room, which is extraordinary.”

Hoffman first took a stab at directing back in 1978 when he was tapped to star in and direct the ex-con thriller “Straight Time.” When he felt he couldn’t properly gauge his own performance, he quit as director and Ulu Grosbard was hired to take his place.

Hoffman had put thoughts of directing out of mind until 2008 when he was in London shooting “Last Chance Harvey” and struck up a friendship with cinematographer John De Borman. It was De Borman who continually urged Hoffman to try his hand at filmmaking.

“We would talk about shots all the time, and he would say, ‘you should direct.’ So I said ‘OK, find me something to direct.’ I was about to get on a plane (to go back to the U.S.) when he called me and said, ‘I was just sent a script. They had a director but the director has dropped out.’ So I read it (on the ride home) and I jumped in.”

The project first took shape about a decade ago when Courtenay and his pal Albert Finney asked writer Ronald Harwood (“The Pianist”) if he was interested in turning his play about retired opera singers into a movie.

“Ronnie was very excited and BBC Film commissioned a screenplay and then nothing happened until Dustin came along,” recalls Courtenay.

As he was casting the movie, Hoffman opted to stock the movie with retired musicians and singers. The presence on the set of so many gifted performers gave the movie an almost magical feeling, notes Hoffman.

“The retired opera singers and musicians came in every day with such verve,” says Hoffman. “It made it an extraordinarily special occasion for all of us. It wasn’t a job for the crew after a few days. It took on another tone.”

Originally, Finney was among the cast of the movie. When he had to drop out, Peter O’Toole was approached but opted not to come out of retirement. Connolly was next in line. After that, Smith signed on. It was Hoffman who cast Pauline Collins, but only after asking Smith who she thought would be right for the role.

“The first thing that you should do as a director — and directors don’t ever do this — is ask good actors who they think is right for a part,” says Hoffman. “Without missing a beat, Maggie said ‘Pauline Collins.”

“I didn’t know Pauline, and hadn’t seen ‘Shirley Valentine’ but I immediately saw it and then I saw `You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger’ and she was wonderful as a psychic.”

As far as his cast is concerned, Hoffman couldn’t be happier — or prouder.

About the Author

Amy Longsdorf is a freelance writer who got hooked on movies after catching "The Godfather" on the big screen. She is a weekly contributor to The Mercury's Sunday Living Section writing entertainment features and DVD reviews. She graduated from Cedar Crest College in Allentown with a degree in communications and has written for People Magazine, The New york Daily News, The Toronto Star, Philadelphia Weekly and The Camden Courier Post. She contributed to "Videohound's Groovy Movies:Far Out Films of the Psychedelic Era." Reach the author at movieamy@aol.com
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